Berti’s testimony boosted the case for the defendant dubbed “Foxy Knoxy” after her arrest in the murder that gained worldwide attention.

Riccardo Sanesi/AP

Amanda Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito kisses his lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, during the trial. ‘I hope I’ll have the chance to live a life,’ Sollecito pleaded to the court. ‘That’s what I’m asking you.’

“It means that Amanda took the knife exclusively for cooking matters, to keep in the kitchen and use it,” said defense attorney Luca Maori.

“It is something very important,” said Maori, noting the knife was found inside a drawer at the Italian home where Knox lived with the 21-year-old victim. “It is absurd to use it for a murder and put it back in the drawer.”

Knox, who returned to the United States after her conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011, was not in court for the latest hearing in her six-year legal odyssey.

MAURIZIO DEGL’ INNOCENTI/EPA

Raffaele Sollecito, with his lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, was convicted of murder with Amanda Knox in 2009 before an appeals court objected to evidence collection in the first trial.